MotM: 16-08-14 Dartford (H) Verma

[garthrockett]

I really like Blissett. His game is akin to Emile Heskey. Most people won't get him, and will bemoan a lack of killer instinct or end product. But like Mr Heskey his game was to allow those with more finesse around him to flourish. Its no shock Michael Owen was most prolific with Heskey as a partner, or England scored more and Rooney especially looked more hungry when partnered with Heskey. I see Reid and Blissett as our version of Heskey and Owen/Rooney. Blissett will never score more than 5 or 6 a season and may only actualy make 5 or 6 assists as well, but his impact and work rate will be worth 10 for the 'other' striker.

Had Mr Reid got a couple of goals thus far (via Bliss or not) I'd tend to agree with you. But he hasnt.....

He may be a "Heskey" but lacks a "Teddy Sheringham" type of awareness; personified when he brilliantly robbed the Dartford keeper but then spent far too much time deciding what to do with the ball.
But then, had he this talent he wouldnt be playing for us!

[Sheffield Harrier]

Good performance.

Defence solid and a great base for the season. Dunkley (despite one or two bad moments in possession) and Gowling were excellent.

In addition to some direct balls I saw us pass it really well at times. We can do both.

I may have to eat humble pie about Verma. He often keeps it simple and rarely gives it away. I like his confidence on the ball. Can he unlock a defence though? Promising start to the season though. Storer and Byrne played well.

Agree with Garth about Blissett - if he ironed out those mistakes he probably wouldn't be playing for us! He is a threat and its good to see him progressing. Reid is unlucky not to have a couple of goals already this season - I like him. Gash looked unfit when he came on.

Seven out of nine is an excellent start.

Slight concerns / question marks:

Lewis hasn't really been tested yet.
Johnson is still hot and cold. When he has time on the ball he often makes the wrong decision. When he's playing instinctively he causes a lot of problems.

We're not going to be unbeaten forever and when we do lose let's not all go negative and moaning mad. Whild's built a decent side that should compete in this league. There are going to be better teams than us as a number of clubs have bigger budgets than us. I'm sure it'll be good fun though. The team and manager deserve the fans full support.

[Phil]

The goal from yesterday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xptcFJ1GKcQ

[Neurotic Norman]

Very good first half but after a hour it went pear shaped. Grimes instead of Gittings? Wow, that just said "what we have we hold" and just invited them on to us. it was a game we could easily have drawn in the end.

I still don't get this 'love in' with Blissett. I thought he was poor again and offers very little as an attacking threat, or is it just me?Perhaps we should see what Reid and Styche are like as a duo. The one player who does score goals is on the bench and the longer he stays there the more unfit he becomes which is worrying.

Johnson is another player I cant work out. When he goes at defenders and tries to get past them he's a real threat. More often than not he decides to pass it instead and loses the ball. Perhaps its a confidence thing.

I cant wait to see how we perform against Macc and G'head because that will tell us just how good we are, as I see Dartford and Alfreton as relegation fodder.

[Jonkers]

Very good first half should ( could ) have been 3 up. Second half what happened went all defensive Grimes is a good back four player but not midfield, why not Gittings ? Johnson MoM no way what a infuriating player !! My MoM Verma will become a very good player another good find. Tougher games to come but promising start.

[pricey5]

Well I hope this turns out to be a big 3 points gained come April. We started superbly and Dartford could not deal with us, it took two world class saves from their keeper to keep the game level. A nice finish from Storer gave us the deserved lead at half time and from there I fully expected us to push on.

Unfortunately it never really happened, Dartford kept it tight and we wasted some good openings. You could almost sense in the final 20 minutes that Dartford may just nick a point and perhaps Whild thought the same by bringing on Grimes to protect the back 4. They missed a good chance late on but that would have really been harsh on us. Lewis did not have a great deal to do.

The back 4 were again very good and I was also impressed with Verma in the centre. It surely won't be long before Reid gets his goal as he looks very sharp in the box. Bliss again worked hard to keep his place. 7 points from 3 games is a great start (our best in 20-odd years?) and another clean sheet is very pleasing. Let's hope we can continue against Macclesfield and a struggling Chester over bank holiday.

[redandwhitemike]

A small observation on reflection, regarding the drop off in control after the hour mark in the Dartford game.

I didn't go to the Alfreton game as I was 'travelling' so I don't know how hard the team had to work to get the result - but against Dartford we fell apart around the hour and lost the midfield and several players looked very tired. Now I'm a believer in not changing a winning team so I can see the logic of going 'same again' for Dartford, however, Storer, & Verma, both played out the full game against Alfreton and Byrne virtually so (89 min sub) - four days later the same trio run around for like demons for 60 minutes and then hit the proverbial brick wall - hardly surprising and something that looked obvious from the stands, that these lads were knackered and really the sole reason Dartford got back into the game and very nearly snatched a point, yet Gittings didn't come on until 5 mins from the end??

Fortunately our midfield will have a whole week for R & R before Macclesfield - but it does make you wonder why management can't pick up on these issues and make allowances - ie put another midfielder on the bench, I think Green would have been a better option to bring on than Grimes.

Maybe GW will change things (bench) around a bit for the next game.

[pershoreharrier]

Phew!! If we are going to play like that tactically for the season I am going to need a bumper supply of heart pills.

We totally controlled the game for 60 minutes and although we only had a one goal advantage the chances were we would get a second and Dartford would have little other than crumbs.

BUT - on 60 minutes we stop attacking and closing down and pretty much give Dartford 30 minutes to attack us and seek an equaliser which if they had got would probably have spurred them on to a win.

It seemed to me we decided on 60 minutes to defend the lead and whilst we did not concede a simple unintentional error could have brought about our demise.

I clearly do not understand the tactical game of defending a 1 nil lead when you are dominating the game so completely but one thing I do know is we won't always get away with it.

[Bigfoot]

With all this talk of midfielders being tired and two games in three days next weekend, we will need some fresh legs by the Monday v Chester. I would keep the same for Macclesfield and start Gittings on Monday. It may well be that the decision is out of the managers hands though as any knocks taken on Saturday may not be cleared up by Monday.

[redandwhitemike]

With all this talk of midfielders being tired and two games in three days next weekend, we will need some fresh legs by the Monday v Chester. I would keep the same for Macclesfield and start Gittings on Monday. It may well be that the decision is out of the managers hands though as any knocks taken on Saturday may not be cleared up by Monday.

Could be that GW is saving JOK for this one,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,